As he was telling me a large, bearded man in full McCain-Palin campaign regalia got in his face to yell at him.
“Hey, hey,” I said. “I’m trying to interview him. Just a minute, okay?”
The man began to say something about how of course I was interviewing the Obama people when suddenly, from behind us, the sound of a pro-Obama rap song came blaring out of the windows of a dorm building. We all turned our heads to see Obama signs in the windows.
This was met with curses, screams and chants of “U.S.A” by McCain-Palin folks who crowded under the windows trying to drown it out and yell at the person playing the stereo.
It was a moment of levity in an otherwise very tense situation and so I let out a gentle chuckle and shook my head.
“Oh, you think that’s funny?!” the large bearded man said. His face was turning red. “Yeah, that’s real funny…” he said.
And then he kicked the back of my leg, buckling my right knee and sending me sprawling onto the ground.
There was no cop or security officer around to report this lugnut to, and Joe resisted the temptation to smack the guy back, which I commend. But let me say this: the guy who attacked Joe is a criminal, no better that the lunk-head who steels your car stereo or snatches a purse.
Any Obama supporters happen to catch any of this on video or a cell camera snapshot or something? Maybe the reporter can pick the Republican thug out of some pics that may be circulating on the Blogs?
[update] OMG! Joe Killian really has a sense of humor about all of it, all things considered:
How I Became Joe Sixpack And then he kicked the back of my leg, buckling my right knee and sending me sprawling onto the ground.
From my position there I saw the bottoms of a number of feet almost accidentally stomping me to death as the two political camps screamed back and forth, the music continued to blare and some of the Obama crowd moved the large bearded man and his friends away. When I was helped to my feet the bearded man was walking away quickly.
For a moment I considered running the bloated, twelve-sandwich eating prick down and beating the living hell out of him…and then I remembered that I’m a reporter, how much I enjoy being gainfully employed and how hard it would be to keep my job if I got into a fistfight with a guy at a political rally.
So instead I limped off to try to find a security guard or cop.
When I did the guy was nowhere to be found.
“He’s this big fat guy with a brown beard and he’s wearing a McCain-Palin shirt and hat,” I said.
And then felt like an idiot. I was surrounded by people who fit that description.
The entire thing is worth the read... And kudos to the Obama supporters that helped him out.
In an interview with the Omaha World-Herald, Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel (R) suggested that Palin doesn't have the foreign-policy experience to be president. "'She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials,' Hagel said in an interview. 'You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything.'"
Check out this other Hagel line: "'I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, "I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,"' he said. 'That kind of thing is insulting to the American people.'"
Wachovia Corp., a once-thriving financial giant now teetering on the brink of collapse, confirmed today that it was extending an $8 million loan to the cash-strapped National Republican Congressional Committee for last-minute activites to support GOP House candidates.
Wachovia's decision to lend money to the NRCC -- itself reeling from a damaging financial scandal earlier this year -- is sure to draw charges of favoritism, as Wachovia denies credit and freezes assets for thousands of other customers.
Allegations of favoritism are especially delicate for Wachovia, given the company's disproportionate support of Republican campaigns and organizations.
Ed Snider is a man with two missions in life -- one that I wholeheartedly support, and another that I don't, some parts of which I in fact find repulsive. His day job is to bring a championship to Philadelphia with the two teams that he runs through Comcast-Spectacor, the Flyers and the 76ers. Although he hasn't succeeded in 25 years, he tends to be what we want in a sports owner here in Philly, willing to spend money (albeit sometimes foolishly) or shake things up if that's what's needed on the ice or on the hardwood. So far, so good.
In his spare time, he takes the millions of dollars that he's earned with the blessings of the Philadelphia sports fan and used a big chunk of it to promote conservative causes, moving increasingly to the far right with each passing political season. That's his right in a free society, but I also believe that running a pro sports franchise in a big city like Philadelphia is a kind of a public trust. That may explain why state and city taxpayers were willing to lend a financial hand -- $20 million, according to this article -- to help Snider construct the CoreStates/First Union.Wachovia/Citi/Wells Fargo Center back in the mid-1990s.
Sports and politics should not mix, not here and not now, less than four weeks before such a critical presidential election. But that's exactly what rabid GOP supporter Ed Snider will be doing this weekend...
snip
Now, he's making a huge in-kind donation to the McCain-Palin campaign in the arena that we taxpayers kicked in for, giving her a chance to skate her stuff in from of 19,500 mostly upscale male hockey fans from the swing suburbs outside Philly. It will be a warm and fuzzy "hockey mom" event that will make people forget about her ugly and hate-filled rallies of the last week, where she charged that the Democratic candidate for president "pals around with terrorists" as a lynch-mob of an audience hooted and yelled out things like "kill him." (Odd as it sounds, hockey fans are more polite than Palin fans.) (read the whole thing...)
"Across this country, this is the agenda I have set before my fellow prisoners and the same standards of clarity and candor must now be applied to my opponent."
And the Caribou Barbie bobble head in the back gives an understanding nod with a "Yes, yessss!"
McCain has been hanging around Palin just a little too much because her manner of speakin' is beginin' to rub off on him. You betcha!
"The Vice Presidential Debate Posted by: Pejman Yousefzadeh From what I heard, her worst gaffe was calling General McKiernan in Afghanistan "General McClellan," which appears to indicate that Sarah Palin was having a Civil War flashback. Of course, Joe Biden referred to "Bosniacs" so the gaffes were not one-sided and for a Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to refer to "Bosniacs" . . . well, it's kinda interesting, to say the least. I wonder if people will make an issue of it. They should and they most certainly would if Sarah Palin made that comment. Again, it is kind of silly that we are penalizing candidates for innocent verbal flubs that have little to nothing to do with how they would govern, but fair is fair and this gaffe deserves a fair amount of ridicule. Wonder what the Bosnians thought about this statement."
Now... I know that Winky Palin may have had you, the willingly uninformed right wingers, mesmerized with her non-answers to questions - How can you win a debate when you don't, NO, you REFUSE to even answer the questions? Anyways - but your entire right wing giggle gaggle of Grade 3ers that she winked at all night would do much better to check your dictionary before you get all falling over yourselves silly OR, at least, read up a bit on Bosnia and other foreign countries so you might actually have a world view worth commenting on:
Although the international community has done a laudable job in getting refugees and displaced persons back into their homes, the effort to find enough common ground amongst Bosniacs (Bosnian Muslims), Croats and Serbs to run the country on their own, or to develop a sense of loyalty to their common state, has failed. Davos man meets Homo Balcanicus by Bardos, Gordon N. / The National Interest
As the Bosniacs retreated, a plain-clothes policeman discharged a pistol in the air, and "at least two plain-clothes officers" then fired into the retreating marchers, killing 1 person and wounding 20. Former Yugoslavia by UN Chronicle
When you do finally learn to check your dictionaries, you might be well on your way to graduating 3rd grade and - one day, maybe 10 or 20 years down the road - you might even merit being a front page Blogger somewhere...
And as a side note: Isn't it nice that we have a Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who actually knows what he is talking about? Imagine that kind of competence in the White House?
While most people will be watching Thursday's VP debate to find out whether Sarah Palin will start speaking in tongues, there's also the little matter of diarrhea-mouth hothead Joe Biden. The Obama camp is worried about the notoriously unpredictable Biden getting too aggressive (read: red-faced bellowing) while addressing Gov. Palin and losing the coveted "we hate people who aren't nice to the woefully underqualified" vote.
You've worked hard towards this moment too. Take a few minutes to laugh it up a little. Then get back to work ya slackers!
Media Curves found that 61% of Independents believed Obama won the debate, while 38.89% favored McCain as the winner. On each of the eight topics, Obama was a clear winner among Independents, with his highest score coming on the Iran issue - two-thirds of Independents thought he won this question. And, it's hard to argue with these three post-debate polls at RCP- they all have Obama outperforming McCain.
These immediate numbers must be alarming to the floundering McCain campaign even if nobody on the left expects McCain supporters to come out and admit publicly. Then again, we didn't expect McCain supporters to come out against Palin publicly but they did because they have realized that she was that bad a choice.
In a picture supplied by Sarah Palin's family to the Associated Press, Palin appears with some rather odd reading matter: The magazine of the ultraconservative John Birch Society. The picture, dating to 1995, when Palin was a member of the Wasilla City Council, ran beside a profile of Palin in Saturday's New York Times. The magazine, The New American, is sitting on top of her calendar on her desk, unopened.
The Society is generally considered to be well on the right of the American political spectrumand has been described as "ultraconservative" on its own website. However, due to various changes in the personalities, tactics, and ideologies within the conservative movement, the Society has been greatly marginalized since the 1960s among mainstream conservatives.
This afternoon, the director of Division of Elections in Alaska, Gail Fenumiai, told TPMmuckraker that Todd Palin registered in October 1995 to the Alaska Independence Party, a radical group that advocates for Alaskan secession from the United States.
Besides a short period of a few months in 2000 when he changed his registration to undeclared, Todd Palin remained a registered member of AIP until July 2002 when he registered again as an undeclared voter.
There appears to be some conflicting reports on the Sarah Palin's membership which we hope to clear up soon. But there is no doubt that they both attended a 1994 convention, as well as Sarah Palin's video address to the group in 2006 (Video Below).
But make no mistake about the significance of this when you consider that as the "First Dude/Dunce" of Alaska, Todd Palin, has been seen having a significant hand in Alaskan politics not typically allowed for a person with the status of citizen, given his access to what is claimed as supposedly confidential information, information that Sarah Palin refuses to release to the media or any other citizen based on obviously and demostrably false claims of "executive privilege" Sounds like the corrupt bush admin. all over again, eh? Now wonder McCain likes her.
Considering just how well the McCain campaign vetted Sarah Palin before picking her as his running mate for the upcoming campaign, I wonder how Palin's "Patriotic" credibility will be viewed by his rabidly faux patriotic supporters when they find out that her idea of foreign policy experience may be in dealing with the government of the USA?
In the first clip we see Palin address the AIP convention earlier this year:
This next clip is the 1st of 2 parts from the convention itself. About half way through the speech(at 6:00), the Vice Chairman of the AIP, Dexter Clark, says this of Palin: "Our current governor who I mentioned at the last conference, the one we were hoping would get elected, Sarah Palin, did get elected . . . .and there was a lot of talk about her moving up. She was an AIP member before she got the job as mayor . . . "
This last clip is a continuation of the speech from Dexter Clark, the Vice Chairman from the AIP. In it, he talks about the necessity of infiltrating the major national parties in order to further the goals of the AIP.
The AIP’s main aim is to secede from the United States, becoming either a territory or a sovereign nation. They aim to be entirely "self-sufficient" using profits from the oil and gas resources of the state.
The Alaskan Independence Party can be summed up in just two words: ALASKA FIRST!
And their 2008 platform:
To seek the complete repatriation of the public lands, held by the federal government, to the state and people of Alaska in conformance with Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17, of the federal constitution.
Governor Palin’s connections with the AIP are also furthered by her connection to Wally Hickel, a former Alaskan governor. Hickel was elected on the AIP ticket. He served as the co-chairman of Governor Palin’s campaign in 2006 Here is a quote from an interview Hickel did with the Alaska Dispatch:
When Palin was running for governor in 2006, Hickel appeared in advertisements supporting her and the Alaska pipeline. "I made her governor," Hickel told me.
When asked earlier this year on CNBC about whether she’d be picked for McCain’s VP, Palin said, "We wanna make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans, and for the things we’re trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the US, before I can even start addressing that question."
So, besides the fact that she doesn’t know what the VP does everyday, Palin wants to be VP only if it’s a good thing for Alaska?
Now this proves that she was once a member of the AIP, IMHO... Why would the AIP lie in that video and why else would Palin be willing to address the secessionists after being elected? Anyone outside of Alaska would consider that political suicide with those faux patriots on the right wingnut side of the aisle in the rest of the nation.
That is all just a canard, IMHO. A ruse to throw the dogs off of the scent of the real story they are covering up in all of those pictures. And it has nothing to do with any alleged nude pics of Sarah Palin.(NSFW!)
They may be trying to hide the fact that Palin is still a member of the AIP and that she is one of the highest placed members of the AIP that they have managed to elevate in politics thus far.
If I were a betting man, I would be willing to bet that there are a lot of deleted Sarah Palin pics with lapel pins and other paraphernalia that show her true anti-American allegiance to the Alsakan secessionist movement.
There is no way on earth that McCain honestly vetted Palin before he picked her as a running mate. No republican candidate that understands their own base would ever have let this get so far.
Officials of the Alaskan Independence Party say that Palin was once so independent, she was once a member of their party, which since the 1970s has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaskans to decide whether or not residents of the 49th state can secede from the United States.
And while McCain's motto -- as seen in a new TV ad -- is "Country First," the AIP's motto is the exact opposite -- "Alaska First -- Alaska Always."
Lynette Clark, the chairman of the AIP, tells ABC News that Palin and her husband Todd were members in 1994, even attending the 1994 statewide convention in Wasilla. Clark was AIP secretary at the time.
[update deux] I had a conspiracy tag on this diary since I know that it was speculative... I removed it since ABC confirmed the basis for my opinion is factual. This sure as hell would be a good explanation for all of those missing pics. Imagine what the faux patriots on the right will say when they find out she didn't like the USA at all back in the 90s. And she may very well not like it much now.
In my previous post you will find a Youtube video of Sarah Palin warmly addressing the Alaskan Independence Party. What sort of organization is this and what is its history?
The AIP was founded by one Joe Vogler, who seems to be a rightwinger from way back.
And then Gary gets into Vogler quotes and here is but one example among many:
"The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government and I won't be buried under their damned flag...and when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home to be buried in my country."
Hate is a pretty strong word Mr. Vogler... Don't ya think? Anyways, Gary, thanks for the illuminating comment.
So it turns out that in the 1990s, Sarah Palin was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party whose primary objective is to secure a vote on whether Alaska should secede from the United States. Their party's motto? "Alaska First - Alaska First Always."
I'm sure McCain will eventually have to comment, but according to Marc Ambinder: "A McCain spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment." I'll guarantee you that we know more about Sarah Palin than does McCain or his campaign.
I am willing to guarantee that as well. Because I know I still have Palin news that I am working on! lol Right now all the McCain campaign campaign can do is shut their mouths on this huge story and hope the media don't start covering it like they should.
[update quatre] The media everywhere is starting to pick up on this... I just watched David Schuster toss it out on MSNBC while interviewing some pundits and surrogates. And you could tell by the McCain flack's (?Andrea Tantaros?) reaction that she was taken aback - that flinch and look of "Say what?" - by this news before she plowed into her talking points on everything but the secessionist point.
Even Karl Rove acknowledged that she was a risky pick in his talk this morning with the Maine delegation. The soap opera is getting surreal. Sarah Palin's involvement with the secessionist Alaska Independence Party is just the latest punch in the stomach to a reeling Grand Old Party. She is a Buchananite who liked (and maybe voted for) Ron Paul? Now news of her daughter's pregnancy adds new poignancy to her 2006 campaign promise.
"Explicit sex ed programs will not find my support."
Lord have mercy, it's hard out there for a Republican pimp.
I think I may be getting closer to nailing down Sarah Palin's connections to the AKIP. But considering trying to keep up on all of the other Palin scandals breaking so fast it is hard to dig on. Added to the multiple scandal factor is the fact that the AKIP connections are very computer savvy, if I am even on the right track?
This afternoon, the director of Division of Elections in Alaska, Gail Fenumiai, told TPMmuckraker that Todd Palin registered in October 1995 to the Alaska Independence Party, a radical group that advocates for Alaskan secession from the United States.
Besides a short period of a few months in 2000 when he changed his registration to undeclared, Todd Palin remained a registered member of AIP until July 2002 when he registered again as an undeclared voter.
There appears to be some conflicting reports on the Sarah Palin's membership which I think I have found the way to clear up. But there is no doubt that they both attended a 1994 convention, as well as Sarah Palin's video address to the group in 2006 (Video Below).
And make no mistake about the significance of this when you consider that as the "First Dude/Dunce" of Alaska, Todd Palin, has been seen having a significant hand in Alaskan politics not typically allowed for a person with the status of citizen, given his access to what is claimed as supposedly confidential information, information that Sarah Palin refuses to release to the media or any other citizen based on obviously and demostrably false claims of "executive privilege" Sounds like the corrupt bush admin. all over again, eh? No wonder McCain likes her.
A phone number search for a number I got out of AKIP archives sent me to this dKos Diary by Ash Meerstrand... It appears he had the same lead I was on. The phone number:
The claim that the AIP held meetings in the town where Palin was mayor while her husband was a member can easily be confirmed using Internet Archive. Meeting information from that time (the first set is from 1998, the other 2000):
Wasilla ,Alaska
Country Kitchen Restaraunt,
411 W. Parks Highway, Wasilla
Tuesdays at 7:00 PM
Wasilla, Alaska
Nobody's Inn Restaraunt,
W. Parks Highway, Wasilla
Tuesdays at 7:00 PM
Call 376-8285
It's only 8pm in Wasilla, Alaska. Is it too late to investigate? Wasilla has only about 9,000 people, and about 5,500 people lived there in the year 2000, so maybe there could be someone there that would know if Todd or Sarah ever showed up.
I edited out the "image source" and formatting crap so you could see the plain email addy for the "same phone" number contact. I was unable to find another reference on a quick Google of that eMail BUT I also did on a search of "web-ak". Info on website addy for this site
Excerpted from the website description:
Alaskan owned and operated, Web Alaska offers web services for Alaskans and outsiders alike. Compu Doc offers computer repair and services thoughout South Central Alaska.
The following is a first hand account of a gentleman who has a story to tell about his experiences with Sarah Palin. I am granting him this venue to say what he has to say because firstly, it gives us another non-press view of a soon-to-be mainstream name, and secondly, the person giving this account is a Geek with Guns (and used to host this website for me when I needed his help).
"I just wanted to let you know ... Sarah Palin who McCain just picked as the next vice president is one of the most honest people I have known. I have known her for over 15 years, been in her house and have had numerous conversations with her, in person, on the phone both for personal issues as well as political issues.
"She is an excellent choice and this might have even saved McCain from going down in history as a loser in the presidential race. Sarah is one elected official that I can’t say anything negative about. And after 15 years of knowing her if there was something that was bad I would have known it.
"This lady has contacted me personally to get help discovering how one of her co workers was abusing his state office because she didn’t believe she could trust the states department of law. The guy later copped a plea, paid a hefty fine and lost his state job but this was after she quit her 2000 / week job and was forced to go public to expose his corruption. By the way he was/is the chairman of the state republican party "She is VERY approachable which is going to make the insiders and secret service crazy."Wanted to let you know."
Mark Chryson Wasilla, Alaska
If you would like to know more about the personal experiences of Mark in regards to Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin, Mark has given us permission to present the following contact information for that purpose, and offered his phone number up for that purpose as well (which I will decline to provide here do to the GwG haters).
mark [at] web-ak.com - Email Mark Chryson by removing the [at]
I have not verified the credibility of "Geeks with Guns," BUT remember how she hacked computers to out the Alaska Republican chairman...
But Fenumiai adds that Palin's husband Todd was a member of the AIP from October 1995 through July 2002, except for a few months in 2000. He is currently undeclared.
As part of their pushback against the charges of Lynette and Dexter Clark of the AIP, the McCain campaign says that Palin did not even attend the AIP convention in Wasilla in 1994.
But another former AIP official -- Mark Chryson, chairman of the AIP from 1995 to 2002 -- tells ABC News that "Palin was at the convention in 1994. She was there."
Was she a member?
Chryson can’t say. "She may have been, I do not know," he says. Their records don't go back that far.
"Ask Sarah," he suggests.
I'd love to. But she hasn't exactly been making herself available to the press.
Former AKIP chairman Chryson, friend and neighbor of the Palins for over 15 years. Chryson was in charge of Wasilla meetings for the AKIP. And Todd Palin was a member almost the entire time Chryson was in charge.
Chryson can't say if she was a member of AKIP? Or he won't say it knowing it would doom her politically.
This may turn into the missing link if we dig enough... heh
Side Note: This diary is just a follow up on Secessionist Sarah diary I did earlier that I felt deserved to be more than just an update in an outdated diary.
[update]Some preliminary digging on Mark Chryson, and this ain't pretty:
Okay, so Walter Hickel is widely believed to have just run on the Alaskan Independence Party ticket because he felt the Republican nominee was too liberal, since he was a major advocate for statehood in the first place. He did, however, threaten to "take our star off the flag."
This was documented once on the AIP's website until 2000, and it still has a reference here: http://www.akip.org/history1.html
The audio is from her 2006 inaugural speech, which I already wrote about, but failed to mention that. Nevertheless, here it is again: http://www.gov.state.ak.us/audio/inaugural_v1.mp3
Now, the Alaska state government may be scrubbing their website, but so far it's mostly as far as links go. If you poke through Internet Archive, even if their robot crawler didn't copy the old 2007 web page, odds are it'll still be hosted somewhere on their servers and accessible via Internet, if you just remove the Internet Archive part of the URL.
That might be a good place to dig.
You can't see them on the 2008 website, and http://www.gov.state.ak.us/... is "forbidden," but here's a link to 212 audio files.
dKos again, and this is some weird, scary and wacky stuff:
Okay, it appears that web-ak.com is a webhosting company that is owned by this friend of Palin's. I went to this site and had a look around. Under the links page, we find something called the "Waco Holocaust Museum". Now, note that this is on the links page and is hosted on the same domain. In fact, it appears to be the only thing on the links page on the same domain. At the bottom of this Waco page, there are more links, a big list of them at the bottom. Half the links don't work (archive.org anyone?), but the ones that do work include:
"Seventh Seal" An 'apolitical' history of the Axis (Nazis).
"The Confederate Memorial Association"
"Brasscheck" Appears to be a 9/11 truther site.
"Real History Archives" Assorted conspiracy theories.
"Brood of Vipers" More conspiracy theories.
"Final Conflict" Incoherent website about Nationalism. The page has an article "Did six million really die?"
Enjoy!
There are also hundreds of photos, gifs and other stuff stored in zips with file titles like /death/burial.jpg, /death/waco/burial.gif, /death/coffin.gif, /waco/coffin.html etc.. This is one wacko dude.
http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/web-ak.com/
McCafee site advisor shows 4 ZIP files that can be downloaded from the site... Virus free and all. But they look like they are just stuff for his wacky website. I really don't think I want to sift through them after looking at the site.
at the bottom of the waco page:
Published by Public Action, Inc, a news and news analysis service. All commercial rights are reserved. A full statement of terms and conditions for copying and redistribution is available in the Museum Library. "Waco Holocaust Electronic Museum," "SkyWriter," and the sky writing logo are trademarks of Public Action, Inc.
All original material is copyright 1996-2000 by Carol A. Valentine, on loan to Public Action, Inc.
Postal Address: Carol A. Valentine, PO Box 10933, Burke, VA 22009
This page last updated February 28, 2001
This Page is mirrored courtesy of Web Alaska
Not "hosted by web-ak"
"This page is mirrored COURTESY OF WEB-AK"
Interesting choice of outfits to offer freebies there...
More dKos comments because I had to wonder if he goes to Sara Palin's "non-demonicnational" church:
I couldn't find anything to that effect. But I did find a choice quote by him in an apparently defunct guestbook on the akip site that does not appear to be accessible from the main page.
This guy is seriously out there. He also derides someone else who posted to the guestbook as being "government educated" on Feb 25, 2001.
and a second reply:
Sorry about the second reply, but did you notice the article linked at the top of the Waco page called "The FBI's Catholic Church"? It seems to be trying to make the argument that Waco was a plot by the Catholic church because some FBI agents happen to be Catholic. These people are seriously lunatics.
Chryson is as loony as a right wingnut can possibly get... And seems to like reading from, hosting and linking to radical/bigoted/plain-freakin'-loony stuff.
And this is the guy who was the leader of Todd Palin's political party when he was a member? As well as their neighbor who ran the local AKIP meetups? And Sarah Palin got help from him to bring down the Alaskan GOP chairman according to Chryson's words.
And the media gave him a public stage to give a Sarah Palin testimonial. WTF???
Diarist cloudwatcher over at DailyKos has this excellent idea. La Casa de Los Gatos reads DailyKos fairly regularly, but is not a member. Los Gatos, as you know, are not herd or pack animals. They prefer to be solitary in their pursuits. In the event, it's a simply brilliant idea, and for those of our visitors who are not DKos members here is the gist of it: Given that Palin is as anti-feminist as they come, those who disagree with her positions on women's right to choose and to their bodily autonomy ought to donate $10 (or more if you can afford it) to Planned Parenthood in Palin's name. PP has a policy of sending thank-you cards to the person being "honoured" by such donations. Cloudwatcher requests that you use this link, and adds:
You'll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the "in Sarah Palin's honor" card. I suggest you use the address for the McCain campaign headquarters, which is:
McCain for President 1235 S. Clark Street Arlington , VA 22202
PS - Make sure you use that link above or choose the pulldown of Donate--Honorary or Memorial Donations, not the regular "Donate Online"
And, of course, in the interest of sharing teh love, please — pass it on!
Before I write anything on why Sarah Palin is truly a very sick person I want you to look at these stats for violent crime and forcible rape on a state by state basis:
While - thankfully for us Nutmeggers - Connecticut is way down near the bottom of this list, it is obvious that rape in Alaska is a very serious issue that is and has been begging to be dealt with properly. Unfortunately for Alaskans, Sarah Palin has made it a budgetary priority to ignore these issues.
Despite denials by the Palin campaign, new evidence proves that as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin had a direct hand in imposing fees to pay for post-sexual assault medical exams conducted by the city to gather evidence.
Under Sarah Palin's administration, Wasilla cut funds that had previously paid for the medical exams and began charging victims or their health insurers the $500 to $1200 fees. Although Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella wrote USA Today earlier this week that the GOP vice presidential nominee "does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test...To suggest otherwise is a deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice,"
Of course, and as has proven the case over and over again, both the McCain campaign and Sarah Palin tried to lie their way out of that.
Eight years ago, complaints about charging rape victims for medical exams in Wasilla prompted the Alaska Legislature to pass a bill -- signed into law by Knowles -- that banned the practice statewide.
"There was one town in Alaska that was charging victims for this, and that was Wasilla," Knowles said
A May 23, 2000, article in Wasilla's newspaper, The Frontiersman, noted that Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies regularly pay for such exams, which cost between $300 and $1,200 apiece.
"(But) the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests," the newspaper reported.
It also quoted Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon objecting to the law. Fannon was appointed to his position by Palin after her dismissal of the previous police chief. He said it would cost Wasilla $5,000 to $14,000 a year if the city had to foot the bill for rape exams.
You would think that warped view would be enough to throw the average American woman for a loop. But Sarah Palin is even worse than that simple position since, according to the McCain campaign, she fired Monegan - one of the Alaskan state officials at the heart of Troopergate - because Monegan was trying to get more money from the Feds to help prosecute cases of sexual assault.
The McCain campaign says it can prove Monegan was fired in July because of insubordination on budget issues ... The "last straw," the campaign said, was a trip Monegan planned to Washington in July to seek federal money for investigating and prosecuting sexual assault cases.
In a July 7 e-mail, John Katz, the governor's special counsel, noted two problems with the trip: the governor hadn't agreed the money should be sought, and the request "is out of sequence with our other appropriations requests and could put a strain on the evolving relationship between the Governor and Sen. Stevens."
That's right: they claim Chief Monegan was fired for trying to get money to investigate and prosecute rapists, because Palin didn't want to do so.
That's right... According to the McCain campaign, Palin fired Monegan because he was trying to find more resources to prosecute rapists and other criminals involved in sexual assault cases. A problem that she had previously hampered as Mayor of Wasilla when she refused to pay for rape kits.
The more I read on Monegan and Sarah Palin in the Troopergate scandal, the more and more Monegan comes off as someone trying to get things done to improve the safety and security of the people of Alaska in spite of Sarah Palin's best efforts to squander money on bridges to nowhere while ignoring serious criminal activity.
The last straw, the McCain campaign said, was in July, when Monegan planned to travel to Washington to seek federal money for a plan to assign troopers, judges and prosecutors who could exclusively handle sexual assault cases — one of the state's most intractable crime problems.
In a July 7 e-mail, John Katz, the governor's special counsel, noted two problems with the trip: The governor hadn't agreed the money should be sought, and the request was "out of sequence with our other appropriations requests and could put a strain on the evolving relationship between the Governor and Sen. (Ted) Stevens."
Just thought readers would want to know if they decided to click through... And Bloggers would want to know in case they are looking for quotes for their own Blog. I don't know if there were any other major changes to the article other than what I put in BOLD.
THE CRIME AND THE COVER-UP.... At her kickoff event in Ohio yesterday, Sarah Palin boasted about having rejected congressional funds for the infamous "bridge to nowhere." Soon after, we realized that Palin wasn't telling the truth about one of her signature issues, on her very first day as a candidate for national office.
Now, some might say this is excusable, because Palin's remarks were written by McCain campaign aides, and the McCain campaign barely knows who Palin is. That's probably true.
But lying about an alleged abuse of power is far more serious.
Remember the expression, the cover-up is worse than the crime? It's plainly true in the case of Palin firing Alaska Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan. Take a look at this video, from the ABC affiliate in Alaska, and notice that Palin seems to have been caught, rather blatantly, misusing her power and then lying about it.
While we're at it, read this rather extraordinary report from the Washington Post about just how embarrassing this scandal is for Palin.
For that matter, let's not forget that Palin fired the Alaska Public Safety Commissioner for the most dubious of reasons, and then replaced him with a guy facing a credible sexual harassment accusation, and who was out of the job two weeks later. What a great example of sound judgment.
Interestingly enough, the right wing only seems to want to address Palin's charges concerning Wooten being an asshat, but they completely ignore the very credible evidence of serious abuses of power and the fact that their family was directly involved in some of the asshat things Wooten did, as well.
I am sitting back and laughing because, outside of Alaskan Blogs, there were maybe about a dozen Blogs that had even one of the many stories I had bundled together on Friday about Palin being a pothead, her "Bridge to Nowhere!", whether or not she will be inducted into the Alaskan CBC... And, of course, the impeachment story, known as Troopergate, that many Blogs were playing catch up on.
Anyone that thinks this is going to win over former Hillary Clinton supporters already firmly in the Democratic party fold don't understand the fact that Hillary supporters were and are strongly Pro-Choice for the most part.
Her lifetime membership in the NRA may help solidify one of McCain's many weaknesses in his own party base, as well as her advocating religion in schools under the banner of "creationism" may help solidify some of the Christian fundies, but I fail to see how any of it will get her anywhere with moderates or women, in general. Some of the Christian fundamentalists may even despise her just for the fact that she is woman seeking power.
As for her supposed record of cleaning up Alaskan politics and conservative cred?
Palin said she has smoked marijuana -- remember, it was legal under state law, she said, even if illegal under U.S. law -- but says she didn't like it and doesn't smoke it now.
Breaks laws but says it is OK... Sounds bush-like. IOKIYAR, to say the least.
The $398 million bridge would have connected Ketchikan, on one island in southeastern Alaska, to its airport on another nearby island.
Gov. Sarah Palin said Friday the project was $329 million short of full funding.
"We will continue to look for options for Ketchikan to allow better access to the island," the Republican governor said. "The concentration is not going to be on a $400 million bridge."
And any doubt about her place on the ticket to distract from corrupt Republicans can be removed here:
Palin, who has previously said her administration didn't exert pressure to get rid of trooper Mike Wooten, also disclosed that members of her staff had made about two dozen contacts with public safety officials about the trooper.
"I do now have to tell Alaskans that such pressure could have been perceived to exist although I have only now become aware of it," Palin said.
But Palin said her decision to fire Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan last month had nothing to do with his refusal to dump trooper Mike Wooten.
The governor said evidence of what she called a "smoking gun" conversation, and other calls made by her aides, only recently surfaced as the attorney general started an inquiry at her request into the circumstances surrounding her firing of Monegan. Palin wanted the review because a special investigator hired by the Legislature is about to investigate the firing and a legislator has been quoted in a newspaper story talking about impeachment.
Gov. Sarah Palin is trying to find out what the Legislature's special investigator might discover as he probes her controversial firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.
Obviously Sarah Palin wants the inquiry for ethics reasons... Not to head off any damaging information that might come up in a real independent investigation.
Alaska political corruption probe refers to a widespread investigation from 2004 to thepresent by the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service into political corruption of lawmakers in the Alaska State Legislature, focusing in particular on lawmakers' official actions in relation to the oil industry, fisheries, and private corrections industry. As of May 2007, the investigation has resulted in indictments against four current and former Alaska state legislators on corruption charges; and guilty pleas by two executives of the oilfield services company VECO Corporation to charges of bribery and conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service. Indications are that further indictments may be forthcoming as the investigation progresses.
Former Representative Tom Anderson was indicted in December 2006 on allegations of extortion and bribery involving his support of a private corrections company. Anderson was convicted of all seven felony counts on July 9, 2007. Former House Speaker Pete Kott (R-Eagle River), former Representative Bruce Weyhrauch (R-Juneau), and current Representative Vic Kohring (R-Wasilla) were arrested and arraigned on May 4, 2007 on charges of accepting bribery and extortion related to their support of an oil tax law favored by the oilfield services company VECO Corporation.[1] On May 7, 2007, VECO Corporation founder and CEO Bill Allen and Vice President for Community & Government Affairs Rick Smith pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Anchorage to charges of bribery and conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service.[2]
If you want to have a little fun...
Last November voters identified corruption as the number one issue affecting their vote, in short: vote the bastards out! We here at the C.B.C. couldn’t agree more but there are plenty more of these bastards out there in politics, the media and big business so let’s hear more about them. Play Who’s Your Corrupt Bastard?our award winning national contest ripped straight from the headlines of Alaska politics where you can win fabulous prizes and call out your favorite corrupt public figure. Peruse The Bastard Files for a look at current nominees. We are also the official headquarters for the now infamous Corrupt Bastard Club Gear - perfect for that corrupt bastard in your life.
I am doing the best I can to be out ahead of everything that is "NEWS" here, more so than usual... And I think I have been well ahead of the curve on the biggest stories of the campaign in the last month or so. Certainly running with pack of Bloggers that are lookin' way back over their shoulders at the flailing and floundering Traditional Media.
And there is still a lot more to come on this pitiful Palin pick...
I am just not irresponsible enough to start posting based on rumors of her daughter being - or having been - pregnant, or any of the other weird and wacky stories floating around the internet concerning the birth of Trig. But, apparently these stories worry the right wingnuts enough to start refuting them before they make any big splashes in the news. Go figure?
Here we are talkin' about someone that not only should never have been picked as McInsane's running mate, but she knows she is completely unprepared for this, via kos:
In an interview just a month ago, she dissed the job, saying it didn't seem "productive." In fact, she said she doesn't know what the vice president does. Larry Kudlow of CNBC's "Kudlow & Co." asked her about the possibility of becoming McCain ticket mate. Palin replied:
Palin replied: "[A]s for that V.P. talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the V.P. does every day?
So, if McCain had made his selection six months ago, the squeaky-clean governor meme would have made a little more sense. But, Sarah Palin is currently under an ethics investigation by the Alaska state legislature. The details of this investigation read like a trashy novel, and I suspect that the players will soon have newfound celebrity on the national stage. I’ll try to explain for all you non-Alaskans who suddenly have good reason to want to know more about Sarah Palin. For those of you not interested in trashy novels, feel free to skip ahead. Here it is…what we in Alaska call “TrooperGate”.
Sarah Palin’s sister Molly married a guy named Mike Wooten who is an Alaska State Trooper. Mike and Molly had a rocky marriage. When the marriage broke up, there was a bitter custody fight that is still ongoing. During the custody investigation, all sorts of things were brought up about Wooten including the fact that he had illegally shot a moose (yes folks this is Alaska), driven drunk, and used a taser (on the test setting, he reminds us) on his 11-year old stepson, who supposedly had asked to see what it felt like. While Wooten has turned out to be a less than stellar figure, the fact that Palin’s father accompanied him on the infamous moose hunt, and that many of the dozens of charges brought up by the Palin family happened long before they were ever reported smacked of desperate custody fight. Wooten’s story is that he was basically stalked by the family.
After all this, Wooten was investigated and disciplined on two counts and allowed to kept his position with the troopers. Enter Walt Monegan, Palin’s appointed new chief of the Department of Public Safety and head of the troopers. Monegan was beloved by the troopers, did a bang-up job with minimal funding and suddenly got axed. Palin was out of town and Monegan got “offered another job” (aka fired) with no explanation to Alaskans. Pressure was put on the governor to give details, because rumors started to swirl around the fact that the highly respected Monegan was fired because he refused to fire the aforementioned Mike Wooten. Palin vehemently denied ever talking to Monegan or pressuring Monegan in any way to fire Wooten, or that anyone on her staff did. Over the weeks it has come out that not only was pressure applied, there were literally dozens of conversations in which pressure was applied to fire him. Monegan has testified to this fact, spurring an ongoing investigation by the Alaska state legislature. But, before this investigation got underway, Palin sent the Alaska State Attorney General out to do some investigative work of his own so she could find out in advance what the real investigation was going to find. (No, I’m not making this up). The AG interviewed several people, unbeknownst to the actual appointed investigator or the Legislature! Palin’s investigation of herself uncovered a recorded phone call retained by the Alaska State Troopers from Frank Bailey, a Palin underling, putting pressure on a trooper about the Wooten non-firing. Todd Palin (governor’s husband) even talked to Monegan himself in Palin’s office while she was away. Bailey is now on paid administrative leave.
As if this weren’t enough, Monegan’s appointed replacement Chuck Kopp, turns out to have been the center of his own little scandal. He received a letter of reprimand and was reassigned after sexual harrassment allegations by a former coworker who didn’t like all the unwanted kissing and hugging in the office. Was he vetted? Obviously not. When he was questioned about all this, his comment was that no one had asked him and he thought they all knew. Kopp, defiant, still claimed to have done nothing wrong and said to the press that there was no way he was stepping down from his new position. Twenty four hours later, he stepped down. Later it was uncovered that he received a $10,000 severance package for his two weeks on the job from Palin. Monegan got nothing.
After extensive news coverage about all this nasty behind-the-scenes scandal, which is definitely NOT squeaky clean, Palin’s approval ratings fell to 67%, still high, but a far cry from the 90% number that’s being thrown around so glibly by the Republicans today. Alaskans are quickly becoming disillusioned once again.
You will find about 800 comments there now, and a lot of it concerns rumors from locals on the Palin kids' origins, so to speak. They are debating whether Sarah Palin was ever pregnant OR if their daughter Bristol is or has been pregnant OR if Sarah Palin had the amniocentesis tests done because she might have been considering having an abortion, among other interesting subjects.
All of these issues are things that should instantly kill Palin's already lukewarm support from the Christian Fundamentalists, Christianists, and Christofascists IF they are proven true. You have to remember that while most of these groups may celebrate her far right wing religious positions, there are many among those groups that don't like women that go to work, never mind chasing that supposed manly power.
Sarah Palin's hometown rallied around her as mayor - now Republicans wonder if the rest of America will warm up to the surprise pick from cold country.
Though her mother-in-law has doubts.
Faye Palin admitted she enjoys hearing Barack Obama speak, and still hasn't decided which way she'll vote."
A former top Justice Department prosecutor now working for John McCain's presidential campaign has been helping to direct an aggressive legal strategy aimed at shutting down a pre-election ethics investigation into Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
The growing role of Edward O'Callaghan, who until six weeks ago served as co-chief of the terrorism and national security unit of the U.S. attorney's office in New York, illustrates just how seriously the McCain campaign is taking the so-called "troopergate" inquiry into Palin's firing last summer of Walt Monegan,
Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner.O'Callaghan emerged publicly for the first time this week when he told reporters at a McCain campaign press conference, in Anchorage, that Palin is "unlikely to cooperate" with an Alaskan legislative inquiry into Monegan's firing because it had been "tainted" by politics.
The "tainted with politics" claim? I guess it is based on the fact that 3 Republicans and 2 Democratic members on a committee looking into claims of Palin's abuse of power voted to go forward with subpoenas and a formal inquiry...
From 
